Grow America's Best Fruit

Image Gallery Michael Phillips wrote The Book on organic apple growing. FRANK SITEMAN

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Only fruit growers and their lucky friends get to enjoy the sublime flavors of succulent, tree-ripened fruit. When compared to bland supermarket fare, just one bite into a homegrown, richly perfumed "Forelles' pear or 'Sweet Sixteen' apple, with its sweet, anise essence can turn a fruit lover into an ardent fruit grower. A group of fruit enthusiasts, known as the North American Fruit Explorers, paired up with MOTHER to share their favorite fruits—and growing tips—on the following pages. Read on, and learn how you can grow the most flavorful fruit in your own orchard.

Destined for supermarket bins, commercially grown fruit varieties are selected primarily for their appearance and their shipping and storing qualities: Flavor often becomes secondary. Peaches, plums and apricots are picked before they're ripe, so they don't bruise during shipping. When these soft-fleshed fruits eventually do ripenin shipping boxes or on store shelves-their flavors are bland because they were deprived of sugars that naturally develop when the fruit ripens on the tree.

Even hard fruits like apples and pears suffer the same fate. "'Gravenstein' apples are unsurpassed for aroma and flavor when allowed to fully ripen," says Betty Mayfield, a grower from Rainier, Oregon. "But the green ones sold in stores are not ripe. Extra time on the tree until red stripes appear pays off in superb fruit.

" Betty, a member of the North American Fruit Explorers, is one of many throughout the United States, Canada and other parts of the world who are committed to the discovery, cultivation and appreciation of exceptional varieties of fruits and nuts.

ANTIQUE AND ULTRAMODERN

You'll find some of the most delicious and oldest varieties of fruit in the orchards and back yards of NAFEX members, and in preservation orchards such as Heritage Farm in Decorah, Iowa, where the Seed Savers Exchange is based, and Tower Hill Botanical Garden in Worchester, Massachusetts.

Newer fruit varieties created by Purdue University and the University of Minnesota have exquisite flavor, too, but are not widely in commercial production for various reasons, such as their inability to store well for lengthy periods.

Many of these new varieties withstand harsh climates and are resistant to major diseases and pests, making them especially suitable for the backyard grower.

With all the antique, standard and new varieties they can choose from, NAFEX members grow a wide array of fruits not commonly found in grocery stores. Their collective recommendations for the most delectable apples, pears, peaches and plums are listed on the following pages, followed by reference numbers for the nurseries that sell these wonderful, flavorful varieties.

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